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| Working on the dinghy engine |
When we left the local park, our dinghy engine wouldn't spin the propeller. The engine would start, but just not go when we put it in forward. It would rev fine, just no propeller spinning. We went into Gondola mode with me serving as the propeller system and 20 minutes later, we were back to the dock.
That night Val went into her mechanic mode. She is totally in her element tinkering with stuff, and she LOVES it. Being raised by a mechanic, she is comfortable tearing stuff down and building them up. Yeah for me as I suck at such things. I know all the theory and can explain every law of physics involved, but getting the mechanic parts together, no f-n way. Go VAL!
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| Pulling out the shear pin |
Val had reasoned that the shear pin had sheared. The shear pin is a small piece of metal that keeps the propeller attached to the spinning shaft of the engine. When the propeller gets hung up on anything and cannot turn, the shear pin breaks (shears) to protect the engine. It is a great approach of keeping the engine safe.
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| Broken Shear Pin on bottom, New Shear Pin on top |
Yep, it was indeed as Val suspected ... the shear pin did shear. In the photo, you can see the shear pin had broken into 3 pieces, just as it was designed to do. The top of the photo shows the new shear pin Val is putting in. Notice how it has 2 score marks in it... those are the break points if it were to break too.
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| Happy as a clam, Val is putting it back together |
Well done Val. Hats off to you. The Ford (Val's maiden name) gene pool definitely runs strong in you. I love you!
We have no idea what had hung up the propeller to cause the shear pin to shear. It worked fine to the park dinghy dock. Another crazy ocean life mystery.
